Page 52 of The Amber Sunburst

Worth a try.

“Fine, yes, I was following you,” Alexander confirms without elaborating.

Kallias looks unimpressed. “Why?”

“Right, well…” Alexander has two options. One, he makes up a lie on the spot, with the guarantee that it will sound creepy and/or completely unbelievable. Two, he tells the truth. At least, a watered-down version of it.

And, you know what? Screw it. Kallias is onto him already, and Alexander really, really needs help. And he really needs… something else too. Because he can’t stand to be alone anymore. Alone in what he knows, in what he’s terrified to share. It makes him restless, and it takes him right back to the beach: everything he has, lost to the sea.

“You know I don’t belong here,” he says.

“You could say that.”

“I just want to get back to where I do belong.”

Kallias nods. A simple thing, just the dip of his chin. “What does that have to do with me?”

Because I’m lonely. Because I need someone, anyone, to make me feel real again.

“I need help.”

Kallias hums in agreement. “I know. I’m just struggling to understand why that’s my problem.”

“Be a Good Samaritan?”

“You do know that’s a Bible reference, right?”

“Christ,” Alexander curses, on instinct. “Ah, shit.”

“Idiot,” Kallias murmurs.

Alexander pushes himself to stand and tries again. “You have a lot more information than most people here have access to. That’s true, right?”

Kallias shrugs.

“No one else has singled me out yet. No one else knows anything from before this stupid state was created, and they definitely don’t know about anything after. So how do you?”

“Would you believe me if I said I don’t?” Kallias asks, mocking Alexander’s words from earlier.

“Please.”

“Why does it matter how I know?”

“I want to leave. And I need to educate myself on this place. The number of times I’ve had to say ‘we do it differently in the country’ is astounding.”

Kallias snorts—the most reaction Alexander has ever gotten from him—so he keeps going. “I’m sure I’ve insulted them a thousand times over. I feel bad. Their culture is probably beautiful.”

Eye roll. “Let’s say I do agree to help,” Kallias says. “Does that mean you want me to get you out of here? Because I’m not doing that.”

“No, no. I just need information, honestly. I’ll figure out everything else myself, I swear.”

“On what?”

“On… On the Forms.”

“Good.”

Silence falls, and they both just look… at each other.